Automotive history is dotted with examples of legendary car names that carved their fame in performance, the kind of high-octane ferocity that turned a car into a merciless street killer.
Most car guys were influenced by these bloodthirsty beasts when they were young, a time when the cars were a huge influence on them.
Jim Sutherland
The names of the bad and beautiful mechanized monsters were sent directly to the forever section of a car guy’s fond memories and left a permanent mark on their automotive psyche. However, the car guys never saw the future possibilities during a golden automotive era when badge names on a performance machine’s sheet metal meant everything to them.

Unfortunately, the world has changed since those days of yore when legends were born because some of the car names were used on models that did not deserve them. Think Boy Scouts in a Green Beret, Navy Seal, or any Special Forces uniform, and you get the picture.

Consequently, MyStarCollectorCar would like to offer five examples of vehicles that did not carry the legacy of their legendary predecessors when they wore the same badge. We acknowledge there are ups and downs in the performance department because some of the vehicles added muscle back into the equation many years later in the name game.

At any rate, on with the show this is it, to borrow the melodious cliché from the Bugs Bunny Show introduction.
The first name on our car badge false flag list is Dodge’s R/T (Road and Track) models. Initially, it was difficult to counter any argument the R/T name was anything short of a bloodthirsty wolf in sheep’s clothing when Dodge introduced its Coronet R/T model in 1967.

There were only two engines available in Dodge Coronet R/T models: 440 cubic-inch big block killers and 426 cubic-inch Hemi monsters, both of which transformed the intermediate and mild-mannered Mopar into a raging beast on the street. The R/T brand would be expanded into the Dodge Charger models by 1968 and pushed the iconic Mopar fastback into the stratosphere that year.

Unfortunately, the R/T brand ran into dangerous whitewater after the first-gen editions ran their course and disappeared-even though the R/T name was re-assigned to many other models over the years. The worst examples were the Dodge Neon R/T and Stratus R/T models because they were small, front wheel drive, and had tricked-up little engines with absolutely no link to the first-gen R/Ts’ big blocks.

For most Moparians, these two lesser Dodge R/T models were about as intimidating as a Chihuahua police dog.
The second car label on our list is more of a sporty edition, namely the Ford Thunderbird, a famous domestic sports car that began life as a lean two-seater performance car in the 1950s and ended up as an obese luxury car by the early 1970s.

To be fair, the Thunderbird got smaller and nimbler by the early 1980s, but one could argue the 1972-79 editions were soulless luxury barges that ran adrift on bad decisions made by Ford in accordance with government bureaucrats who wanted to kill performance and style with strangled engines and big bumper requirements.

The third member of our tarnished badge list is the Pontiac GTO, a very honorable soldier in the Muscle Car Wars of the 1960s. The first Goat (GTO) hit the battlefield in 1964 as a performance package for the Tempest models and earned its stripes on the street and track. The car’s reputation as a rocket on four wheels continued until the end of the 1960s and into the early 1970s.

Unfortunately, the performance era ended after legislators neutered the Goat by 1973 when massive red tape smothered its brute force factor, and fuel shortages starved the famous Poncho gas guzzler. By 1974, the GTO label was simply a sad afterthought on a very forgettable car called a Pontiac Ventura.
The fourth car on our stolen valor list is the Dodge Challenger. The famous Mopar pony car debuted in 1970 as a stylish alternative to the other sporty domestic choices in its corral. The Challey offered serious muscle choices for performance models, including the ultimate performance R/T big block versions mentioned earlier in this article.

It was fun while it lasted, but heavy-handed rules and gas shortages killed the first-gen Challenger by 1975.

Unfortunately, the name was resurrected by 1978 in the form of a Mitsubishi with a Challenger badge. The rise of import cars in the North American market meant an illicit relationship between Chrysler and Mitsubishi produced an ugly stepchild known as a Dodge Challenger from 1978 until 1983.
The fifth and final addition to our list is the famous Ford Mustang. The Mustang was touted as an affordable sports model for secretaries when it debuted in 1964, but it quickly morphed into a big block Secretariat in a few short years.

The Mustang became a solid mix of fast and furious by the very early 1970s, but unfortunately it was gelded in 1974 and became the Mustang II. The ’74 Mustang II was a sad pony car with a 4-cylinder base engine, so it once again became a chick car. The Mustang II’s only component of note was its rack-and-pinion steering, a feature the car lent to many resto mod builds in the ensuing years.
MyStarCollectorCar’s advice to our readers? Remember the cars that wore their badges with honor.
Jim Sutherland
BY: Jim Sutherland
Jim Sutherland is a veteran automotive writer whose work has been published by many major print and online publications. The list includes Calgary Herald, The Truth About Cars, Red Deer Advocate, RPM Magazine, Edmonton Journal, Montreal Gazette, Windsor Star, Vancouver Province, and Post Media Wheels Section.
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